Petition Legislature to allow DEQ to declare oxbows "public"

[rough rider]

In the last 6 months, the public has lost access to at least 2 significant public water bodies in Mississippi. Flower Lake in Tunica County and Albemarle Lake in Warren County. Rumor has it that the ramp on Chotard Lake is next. All of these lakes are oxbow lakes, once channels of the MS River. The only access to these two lakes was in the form of privately owned ramps, both of which have changed hands recently and the public no longer has access through them. It is not the new landowners' fault, it is just how things played out and the public took the loss.

Imagine what would happen if the other private-pay ramps were closed on our MS oxbows. Horn Lake has only one access via the pay-ramp at Lakeview. Tunica Lake only has pay ramps. Old River at Stovall has one public ramp, built with public funds, but access has been limited because the ramp is only accessible via the private MS River levee. The list goes on and on. Thousands of acres of public water are only accessible through a select few pay-ramps. If these ramps change hands, or the leases on the public ramps expires and is not renewed, we will see increasingly more public water become unaccessible.

There are hundreds of oxbow lakes in the Delta, ranging in size from 25-30 acres to 5,000 acre oxbows such as Tunica and Lake Washington. If you will read and study the information out there, such as Supreme Court decisions and Attorney General opinions, you will see that oxbows are considered public. However, the MDEQ, which has been given authority to list public streams in the state based on average yearly flow, has not been given the authority to designate non-flowing waters as public.

We desperately need a law on the books, or an amendment to the public water statute, MS Code 51-1-4, that will designate oxbows as public water bodies alongside our flowing waters. MDEQ has a list of all flowing waters in the state that have been deemed public. There is no oxbow on this list, including the many oxbows we all regularly hunt and fish.

If you are concerned about this, please sign your name and town below. If you want to read up on the court decisions and opinions, there is a sticky on this page. We are looking for 1,000 signatures. Please contact your hunting/fishing friends and let them know. One day we may all be forced to hunt/fish public land, but what will we do if we can no longer access our public oxbows?

Thank you,
RR

[feather]

David DuBard, Petal, MS

[BR549]

Duh even if they do you still have to have an access! No one is stopping you from fishing albermarle. You can still access it from Chortard. This also is not the first time there hasn't been access to Albermarle. That property has always been a lease from ATCO. I have seen 5 different leaseholders in my lifetime and it has been shut down before.
If any of you believe Jerry Johnson turned down the figures that have been reported on here. I have some swampland (that the corps hasn't drained) I need to sell you in Jackafrica!

[Wingman]

I think it's important to have oxbows on the list of "public waters" in the law book. Sure, making them public will not mean more boat ramps won't be sold, but at least the oxbows will be on a list somewhere. As it stands right now, there is nothing in the laws that says oxbows are public, only the court decisions and AG opinions.

I'll sign it.

Rob Heflin-Isola

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Did you attach or link to the petition? Where do we sign? I'm willing, for the same reason Rob stated.

However, not to throw cold water on the idea, but the MDEQ will probably not want this additional "power" or duty. The MDEQ has not been very excited, in the past, to be delegated the power and duty to designate "public waterways" meeting the statutory definition. And it has not wanted to be in the middle of all these hunting and fishing disputes. So, I can't image that it would want this additional duty.

A better idea would be to create a subdivision of the MDWF&P to have the power to designate public waterways per the MS statute(as opposed to the MDEQ making the call ---but, with input from the MDEQ re scientific measurements of water flows, etc.), and the power to designate other public water bodies based upon criteria set forth in a new statute --- criteria that could be based upon existing state case law codified into a statute. Basically, any water body that has been "public" in use would forever remain public and be placed on the list. And then from there, have even more criteria to help with the more difficult decisions. As part of this process (just like the MDEQ does), after a waterbody is placed on the list, there could be a period of time to allow opposition to the designation and a hearing re the merits of the same, if any opposition is filed. If no opposition is filed, then its a done deal. If opposition is filed, then the results of the hearing would determine whether it stayed on the list. And that decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court of MS, which would have the ultimate say if necessary.

Now, that could really work for everyone. The obvious public waters would be clearly stated and declared now, so no disputes should ever arise again years from now. And the ones in dispute could be decided on a case-by case basis, using the criteria stated in the new statute, and the fair process I outlined above.

[duckkiller]

Robert Mitchell- Louisville

[MSDawg870]

Kevin Hogue- Starkville, MS

[JDgator]

Jordan D. Shropshire

Tupelo, MS

[rough rider]

I am surprised to see the very little interest from the duck hunting crowd. The crappie fishermen have jumped in with both feet.

As stated above, "declaring" oxbows as officially public won't help with ramp issues, but it will be a start. Right now, there is nothing in the law books that says they are public. What if, one day down the road, someone says, "Well, such and such oxbow isn't public, because there is no public ramp"? The news is, it has already happened. People are being run off of public water, which they gained access to legally, because there are no public ramps on the lakes. What we need is official documentation in the law books that says oxbows are public waters.

If you enjoy hunting flooded timber in MS oxbows, fishing, skiing or pleasure boating, it would probably be worthwhile to voice your opinion on this matter.

There is no electronic petition at this time, only posts on message boards. If any of you know how to link to an electronic petition, feel free to pm me with the info.

Thanks,
RR

[sunnylab]

Duh even if they do you still have to have an access! No one is stopping you from fishing albermarle. You can still access it from Chortard. This also is not the first time there hasn't been access to Albermarle. That property has always been a lease from ATCO. I have seen 5 different leaseholders in my lifetime and it has been shut down before.
If any of you believe Jerry Johnson turned down the figures that have been reported on here. I have some swampland (that the corps hasn't drained) I need to sell you in Jackafrica!

If i am not mistaken it was actually owned by International Paper and they sold it in a 700,000acre bulk sale to Resource Management Services (RMS). Then RMS split it off and sold it.
So it was not ATCO property.

[chopper30]

Wayne Black
Madison, MS

[crackhead]

Crackhead
Jackfrica, Sippi

[RebelYelp]

I won't sign it.... at least not the way you described. Many landowners own the land surrounding these 25-100 acre oxbows throughout the delta, and would be held liable when leroy slips out of his boat and drowns in 6" of water, not to mention, the idea of turning many of these private duck holes into public ones.... (mainly talking about holes that have been private for years)

[Deltaduk]

mark ward
southaven,ms

[Delta Duck]

Rough rider, What makes you think that Flower Lake is no longer open to the public?